Printing applications for documents and packaging may desire to control the gloss of the ink. Generally, modification of gloss for curable inks occurs by chemical means, such as the addition of a clear varnish to the printed image or text. Another approach involves changing the composition of the ink to include higher gloss components in the ink. This results in a replacement of the ink in the system. This costs time and money as the operator switches the ink in and out as needed to alter the gloss applied to the printed results.
Some flexibility in printing applications has been made possible by curable inks. A curable ink consists of an ink that remains liquid or soft after application to the print media. A curing mechanism then causes the ink to harden into a final printed image. An example of a curing mechanism would be light, such as ultraviolet (UV) light. For inkjet applications, curable inks can have a higher viscosity than non-curable inks to allow the ink to remain in place after being dispensed from a print head until cured. No current printing applications take advantage of the nature of curable inks to address gloss.